"We'll just have to get in as much candy and cake as we can get," Minty added in reply. "Better to have too much than not enough. At least the sky is nearly clear now; just two more days, maybe even one and a half, and I don't have to worry about that any more. I can just concentrate on the catering."

Clover heaved a sigh. "Yeah," she said. "They never believe anything we say, even tho they ought to, cuz they don't know that we're lying, after all. They just assume we are."

"I sometimes lie," Clover said. "But not about important things, only about little things like saying that a rabbit ate my homework when I didn't actually do it, or saying that I ate all my greens when I actually scraped them into the bin, so that I could have ice cream."

Minty nodded. She mentally ticked off the list everything that had been done so far. "We just need to talk to the mayor," she said to Cotton Candy. "We need to find out if Princesses Celestia and Luna are actually going to visit, and if so, what time."

"Tattling is worse than lying," Clover replied, giving the colt a glare. "If all you're doing is telling a few white lies that aren't going to hurt anypony, then it's worse to tattle, cuz it does hurt somepony. Maybe that pony was going to take some time out, then tell her parents or teacher about what she did herself. Maybe she just needed a little time first, to get her courage together. But cuz somepony tattled first, making what she did seem twice as bad, then everything's ruined and a pony is hurt.

"Teachers might listen to tattlers, but not every adult pony likes to hear tales. My mother doesn't like talebearers; she always told me that she'd rather not know what somepony did, rather than have another pony come telling tales."